This is Germany’s chance to get what it has really always wanted–a second Bundesbank.

Let’s face it, the European Central Bank has always been a poor second to the German central bank. Even now, 12 years after its inception, the euro-zone central bank’s anti-inflation credibility is still very much in question.

And the euro, unlike the Deutsche Mark, is hardly seen as a strong currency.

If anything, the recent sovereign debt crisis has damaged the single currency’s reputation and dented its chances of competing with the U.S. dollar as a global reserve currency.

Fore! Like a rogue golf ball, Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen should have seen it coming. Instead, he ran for cover and took more than 24 hours before making a statement. Meanwhile, Ireland’s latest political saga gathered speed.

In July 2008, Mr. Cowen played golf with Sean FitzPatrick, the widely reviled former chairman of the now-nationalized Anglo Irish Bank and, in March 2008, took a phone call from Mr. FitzPatrick about trouble brewing at Anglo.

Why should we care? After all, Mr. Cowen’s center-right Fianna Fail party was always known for its now-folded “Galway Tent,” a private enclosure at the Galway Races where lawmakers socialized with bankers and property developers.

There are many reasons why people care and why the opposition has accused Mr. Cowen of leaving some important items off his political score card. He was asked about Anglo several times, but he omitted all mention of it. Until now.

Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan needs to act swiftly–preferably with proposed legislation that doesn’t provoke the ire of the ECB. The ECB’s response is unwelcome, even for a government that is well used to firefighting.

If this bill is delayed, the effective nationalization of Allied Irish Banks will likely be delayed too. The government has said that it wants AIB to maintain a stock exchange listing, but that ambition is looking increasingly unlikely.

The government plans to inject another €9.8 billion into Allied Irish Banks by the end of February to meet capital requirements. The state currently has an 18.6% stake in the bank, which is eventually expected to rise to 92%.

The bill gives Mr. Lenihan other wide-ranging new powers for the next two years, such as instructing banks to sell assets and imposing losses on banks’ subordinated creditors. The political opposition have described them as draconian.

There is a lot of water cooler talk in Ireland these days about sinking ships and those who desert them. A bitter electorate has been looking forward to that fateful day early next year when it exercises its democratic right and welcomes what many hope will be a new beginning for Ireland.

But for those in the constituency of Meath West there will be yet another government minister missing from that ballot. Earlier Friday, Transport Minister Noel Dempsey became the second government minister from the ruling Fianna Fail party to say he won’t stand again for election.

“Are you the first Meath man in history to walk away from a fight?” Sean O’Rourke, presenter of the lunchtime news program on state broadcaster RTE Radio, asked Mr. Dempsey on Friday.

He replied: “There’s never a good time to leave something you love, that you’re committed to.”

On the contrary, after 33 years in public life, his timing is perfect. Fianna Fail has the lowest support in its history: 17%, according to an MRBI poll released this week, behind the center-right Fine Gael party and center-left Labour Party. A Red C poll earlier this month put its support at 13%.

Let’s be clear about this: Ireland’s deeply unpopular Prime Minister Brian Cowen would never have agreed to a parliamentary vote this Wednesday on the country’s EU-IMF €67.5 billion rescue package if he doubted that it would pass.

News of the vote may have sent chills through international financial markets last Thursday, but Cowen knows that his various budget measures are already passing through the lower house of the Irish parliament, or Dail, comfortably.

There’s little reason why the vote on the so-called “Memorandum of Understanding”–which states that €17.5 billion will also be provided by Ireland, mostly through the National Pensions Reserve Fund–should be any different. The government’s well-flagged four-year plan set out €15 billion in spending cuts and tax measures–€6 billion of which will be frontloaded next year.

A happy coincidence: so does the benignly and deceptively entitled Memorandum of Understanding.

However frustrated the opposition and the public are over the loss of sovereignty, there were no new dramatic cuts or nasty surprises introduced in the Memorandum to further anger people here. The government quietly and effectively saw to that.

The Fianna Fail-led coalition needs to pass the 2011 budget to receive the €67.5 billion EU-IMF loan package that has an average interest rate of 5.8%. It has a slim working majority of two seats with the support of two Independents.

But here’s the good news: lawmakers last week passed the Social Welfare Bill, a key part of the government’s budget cuts planned for next year, and in the hours following last Tuesday’s budget they passed major tax measures.

There are water shortages and salt shortages in Ireland’s capital city at the moment. The country’s actual reservoirs are running low due to leaks and householders who have kept their water running for fear that their pipes will freeze up in the icy weather.

Some local authorities are also running low on salt to grit the roads due to two weeks of heavy snow. Cars are sliding and slipping on black ice, as are pedestrians. Considering that Christmas is approaching and the country is in the midst of the worst economic crisis in living memory, you couldn’t blame the Irish people for the odd wobble.

As Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan stood in the Irish parliament on Tuesday evening delivering the harshest budget in modern times, there were queues outside Bank of Ireland ATMs. Unfounded rumors spread that there was a run on the bank. Don’t always believe what you read on Twitter or Facebook. They are what you might call unreliable narrators.

People wanted money, all right, but not for the reasons you might think. Bank of Ireland had a computer glitch for online, affecting telephone and ATM customers. Some couldn’t access money, while others were able to withdraw more than they were entitled to. Hence the queues. Also, there are often queues outside city center ATMs here.

In the snowy aftermath of Ireland’s multibillion-euro bailout by the European Union and International Monetary Fund, it was only a matter of time before some wily politician dug up the most grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented phrase from Irish history: GUBU.

Reuters

A woman walks along Dublin’s Grafton Street past a newspaper flier reporting on the government bailout.

It was coined during the last recession in the 1980s by the charismatic and now-notorious former prime minister or Taoiseach, the late Charlie Haughey, who famously told the Irish nation to tighten its belt as he received millions of pounds in personal donations from businessmen.

Mr. Haughey came up with the phrase in 1982 not to compare the dire state of the Irish economy with his own lavish lifestyle, but to describe a manhunt to find a double-murderer, Malcolm MacArthur, which ended at the house of the then attorney general where MacArthur was a house guest.

Senator Phil Prendergast, a politician for the left-of-center opposition Labour Party, said Monday of the government’s recovery plan to make €15 billion in brutal cuts over the next four years, one that was rubber-stamped by the EU and IMF:

“It’s not a four-year plan, it’s a GUBU plan.”

“Grotesque, because it puts the interests of foreign banks ahead of the Irish state. Unbelievable, because the Taoiseach insists Ireland has not lost her sovereignty despite making our government little more ransom negotiators.”

“Bizarre, because it continues the failed policies of the last two years which made a bad problem 10 times worse for our people and our economy. Unprecedented, because never in the history of the state has a government sold out its people — until now.”

Joan Burton, the impassioned finance spokesperson for Ireland’s opposition Labour Party, made an interesting point Thursday during a parliamentary debate on the financial crisis.

Burton said she has repeatedly had arguments with Prime Minister Brian Cowen, when he was finance minister, about the Irish Stock Exchange being run like a casino. Burton noted that online poker company and bookmaker Paddy Power was now worth more than the Irish banks. With a market capitalization of €1.41 billion, it beats all three.

Ms. Burton said:

“Paddy Power is bigger on the Irish Stock Exchange than our banks. Doesn’t that say it all about the Celtic Tiger turning into the Celtic Tortoise?”

Cowen had long indulged Contracts for Difference allowing the stock market, once dominated by bank shares, to become a casino for high rollers to gamble, Ms. Burton argued. In June 2008, the then-chief executive of Ireland’s Financial Regulator, Patrick Neary, made a speech in which he said there needed to be more market transparency for CFDs.

He said:

“This is an international issue and we are currently consulting with our colleagues in the Financial Services Authority.”

He sounded quasi-authoritative. But it was too little, too late. Businessman Sean Quinn had already famously made a now-disastrous bet on Anglo Irish Bank, using CFDs to build a stake of around 25% in the now-nationalized bank.

This has been quite a surreal week in Dublin, not least because the International Monetary Fund finally arrived in town. On Monday, the Department of Agriculture launched the much-derided handout of 53 tons of free cheddar to some of the country’s most disadvantaged citizens. It’s a scheme funded by the European Union.

Cheese keeps, it’s true. But that’s the least of people’s worries. This has been a momentous week in Ireland’s history. The government is locked in talks that may ultimately result in it handing over more than cheese: its hard-won sovereignty.

As one Irishman, Eamon Farrell, observed on Facebook:

“Cheese used to give you nightmares. Now nightmares give you cheese.”

Ireland’s short-lived dreams of wealth and respect on the world stage have turned sour. The week ended with the opening of the long-awaited shiny new Terminal 2 by Prime Minister Brian Cowen on Friday. The terminal cost €600 million and was originally dreamed up during the heady days of the Celtic Tiger. It’s a little late.

As a posse of cameras and journalists surrounded Mr. Cowen, he was asked why he wasn’t in the talks with the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Union instead of officiating at airport terminals. (On Thursday, he took time out from the economic crisis to attend IBM’s entrepreneurial SmartCamp finals. He wasn’t a participant.)

Still, Terminal 2 provided the embattled leader with an impressive backdrop and plenty of symbolism.

Mr. Cowen exclaimed:

“T2 was designed and built not just for this year or the next, but for many decades into the future. To view it through the prism of the current downturn would be shortsighted in the extreme.

By investing prudently in improved facilities we are laying the foundations for future growth and prosperity, not just for Dublin Airport, but also for the wider Irish economy.”

Adding to the theatrics was Michael O’Leary, CEO of low-cost airline Ryanair, who never misses an opportunity for publicity. He was wearing an undertaker’s tails and carrying a funeral wreath with the words “Irish Tourism RIP.” Mr. O’Leary looked around at the new facility and mused to this writer: “It’s a wonderful welcoming facility for the IMF.”